Mass. woman sues over sex tape with Buddhist monk

LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts woman has filed a lawsuit against five people she alleges illegally distributed a video of her having a sexual encounter with a Buddhist monk.

Maya Men said in her lawsuit filed in Middlesex Superior Court last week that the defendants — at least one of whom is a monk — violated her right to privacy and her constitutional rights. She also says their actions intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

According to the lawsuit, Men "has been held up to her relevant community as an individual who should be shunned and scorned, called a thief, and referred to by a plethora of pejorative terms," The Sun of Lowell (http://bit.ly/17NhkJB ) reported.

Men is seeking damages and money for an investigation to locate and confiscate all of copies of the video. She also is seeking a temporary restraining order against the defendants and a preliminary injunction barring further distribution or display of the recording.

The accusations have roiled the region's Cambodian community.

Men was helping to lead an effort to raise $10 million for a new temple in Lowell. The sexual encounter took place at a temple in Chelmsford.

One of the men named in the suit calls it part of a "smear campaign" and an effort to deflect attention from the Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks fundraising efforts.

The other defendants could not be reached by the newspaper.

Some members of the community say Men should be removed from the committee that is raising the money.

"The community is being destroyed by the two individuals in the tape," Lowell City Councilor Vesna Nuon said.